Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieslowski’s
third feature film “Camera Buff” aka “Amator”
(1979) is one of the important, transitional works in his oeuvre. Unlike
Kieslowski’s previous films and documentaries, here there was less of overt
social commentary and the focus is more on ethical dilemmas faced by an
individual. The ideas in “Amator” depart from distinct political and
cultural perspective to showcase universal emotional struggles. Kieslowski’s
moral and metaphysical exploration of individuals later resulted in some of his
greatest acclaimed works like “Dekalog”, “Three Colors” trilogy (screenwriter
Krzysztof Piesiewicz and producer Marin Karmitz played an important role in
bringing these works to fruition). The great film scholar M.K. Raghavendra in
his book “Director’s Cut” explains the absence of ‘private space’
in communist state: “Since politics is not a dominant concerning the West,
its film-makers can explore ‘private life’ independent of history and
politics……… when Polish film-makers like Kieslowski and Zanussi embark upon
exploration of the personal in films they are less convincing perhaps because
‘private life’ is still a recent habit and their films are left without a
credible subject”. From that perspective, “Amator” could be seen as
a film well within the framework of East European political cinema, but at the
same time it also explores how individual transformation happens, irrespective
of sociopolitical factors. Like all of Kieslowski’s works, this earlier work
too contains a lot of autobiographical elements and the film mostly reflects
the question the auteur himself faced in the late 70’s: whether objective truth
could be portrayed through images under an oppressive regime?

Our Rating: 8.0IMDb Ratings: 8.0

Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance

Cast: Jerzy Stuhr, Malgorzata Zabkowska, Ewa Pokas

Country: Poland

Language: Polish

Runtime: 117 min

Color: Color

The script from Jerzy Stuhr and
Kieslowski in “Camera Buff” wonders about one’s interpretation of truth
through images, which results in adverse consequences so as to ruin good
people’s lives. Jerzy Stuhr plays the protagonist Filip Mosz, a factory worker
who buys an 8mm movie camera to film his newborn baby. It’s a novelty item for
a simple family man like Filip, who has bought the camera spending his two
month earnings. The instrument he bought to document his private life soon
makes him sit in front of factory chief (also head of local communist party),
who asks Filip to cover the upcoming jubilee celebration. After the birth of
little daughter, Filip says to his wife Irka (Malgorzata Zabkowska) that he is
now fully content with his life. But, as he runs among people in jubilee
celebration, embracing this newfound passion, his wife’s face shows
disapproving expressions. Later, the Chief after watching Filip’s coverage
recommends to travel and shown it in an amateur film festival. The recognition
makes the simple family man and factory worker to start a film club in an
underground basement. He is now fully engaged with making short documentaries
(filming the pavement workers from his drab apartment building). Irka wonders
why he can’t remain content by spending time with family rather than chase
around harsh reality of workers through camera.

Filip capturing the mundane happenings in the neighborhood as his exasperated wife Irka stands behind

When Filip boards the train to go to
the film festival, she shouts ‘don’t win’. To her misfortune, he wins
and now he is thoroughly taken in by the power of images. This pursuit and
passion is inherently ironic: he wants to vividly capture others’ everyday
life, while he sacrifices his own in doing so. Apart from the alienation from
family, Filip is confounded by whether his perception of images could be fully
understood by others for what it is. He follows around an old, dwarf factory
worker with camera to document his daily life. Although Filip empathetically and
truthfully films the old man’s life, trouble arises in different forms, which
eventually leads to ruination of some good men (the chief feels Filip is
exploiting and demeaning the old dwarf). He learns that the image is so
powerful that the different individuals ‘interpret’ truth in different
ways. At one moment of epiphany (towards the end), Filip ruins the film roll,
which documented bricklayers, acknowledging how truth could be twisted under
authoritarian regime. The film ends up with Filip turning the camera upon
himself, recalling his past and life and expressing the thoughts. Two years
after the making of “Camera Buff”, Kieslowski decided that fiction gave
more artistic freedom and the space to portray everyday life in a more truthful
manner. He stopped projecting the camera on factory workers and social decay of
community to focus only on individuality and ‘private space’.

Prominent Polish film-maker Krzysztof Zanussi briefly appears as himself who encourages Filip to continue his film-making endeavor. Filip is seen attending the screening of Polish classic Camouflage

Both Jerzy Stuhr and Kieslowski did lot
of damage to their familial relationships in their pursuit of passion. The
company chief’s statements of what could be shown and what couldn’t, remains as
a stand-in for higher authorities Kieslowski could have faced in his formative
years as a film-maker, when creative expression was heavily censored. The
nature of Filip – an amateur film-maker – also has enough autobiographical
elements, especially when Filip is perplexed by the vast impact his visuals are
creating. Like the 70’s Kieslowski, Filip was less of an artist, living inside
a void with no idea about what kind of effect his films would create among
public and family. There’s also ample reflection on how communist state
suppresses the individual, intervening on every forms of a person’s life. The
autobiographical factors also lend enough space for some universal thoughts and
the director handles much of it with a sensitivity and sense of humor. For
example, there’s the bleak sequence when Filip’s wife leaves him packing all
the bags. When she walks away from the bathroom door, Filip comically makes a
framing hand gesture (to imagine how that would look as a visual) and
immediately puts down his hand, as she turns back. Kieslowski showcases the
beauty of image becoming a substitute for memory through the ‘hearse driver’
– Piotrek’s—episode. Although, the subject of passion transforming into a
conflict for leading family life isn’t dealt in a profound manner, it could
still resonate with those individuals who have had arguments with loved ones to
make them understand the unwavering passion. Kieslowski’s aesthetic sense in
this film is flawless (a groups of workers in gas masks is one of the striking
imagery), even though it lacks the elaborate visual details, found in his later
eponymous works.

“Camera Buff”
aka “Amator” (108 minutes) is one of Kieslowski’s earlier, good
personal pieces of film-making, reflecting (metaphorically & literally) his
own identity crisis and inner struggles. The film marvelously ruminates upon
the complexities of visuals and the responsibilities it drags alongside.

About Author -

Arun Kumar is an ardent cinephile, who finds solace by exploring and learning from the unique works of the cinematic art. He believes in the shared-dream experience of cinema and tries to share those thoughts in the best possible way. He blogs at Passion for Movies and 'Creofire'.

QR Code

Murtaza Ali Khan is an independent film critic / journalist based out of New Delhi, India. He has been writing on cinema for over seven years. He runs the award-winning entertainment blog A Potpourri of Vestiges. He is also the Films Editor at the New York City-based publication Cafe Dissensus and regularly contributes to The Hindu and The Sunday Guardian. He was previously a columnist at Huff Post. He has also contributed to publications like DailyO, Newslaundry, The Quint, Dear Cinema, Desimartini and Jamuura Blog. He regularly appears as a guest panelist on the various television channels and is also associated with radio.